Microsoft has declared its figures for the last quarter and for the year - and the Entertainment and Devices division (EDD) has made an operating profit: $426 million (£213m) to be exact. This is despite a $188m (£144m) operating loss in the final quarter of the 2007/2008 year.

The Xbox 360 was apparently the star of the show for the division.

According to the company, "Xbox 360 platform and PC games revenue increased $234 million (£117 million) or 35%, primarily as a result of increased Xbox 360 console sales, Xbox 360 video game sales, and Xbox Live revenue.

"We shipped 1.3 million Xbox 360 consoles during the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2008, compared with 0.7 million Xbox 360 consoles in the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2007."

This brings the total number of Xbox 360s 'shipped' for 2008 to: 8.7 million Xbox 360 compared with 6.6 million consoles during fiscal year 2007.

So, time - as ever - for a little perspective. The division is not all about the Xbox 360 and each section of the division is not broken down in terms of profit or loss. What does the EDD do? Well, according to Microsoft, it handles the following:

Xbox 360 including games, Xbox Live and accessories.
Zune.
PC Online games and services.
Mediaroom (its Internet protocol television software).
Surface computing.
Mobile and embedded device platforms ("and other devices").

But there is more...

It also "leads the development efforts for our line of consumer software and hardware products including application software for Macintosh computers and Microsoft PC hardware products".

And more... it is also "responsible for all retail sales and marketing for Microsoft Office and the Windows operating systems."

Eh? The division that brings us the Xbox 360 also does all the marketing for Office and the Windows GUI? So, money made by all things Xbox is then pumped into marketing Vista? We thought that Office and Windows would have their own marketing departments.

Or, and we're being all conspiratorial about this, obviously... might it not be a good idea to have a core division that sells Office and Windows and keeps shareholders happy as a profit centre, while operating costs such as, well, sales and marketing for those same core products get shovelled into a division that has traditionally made a loss?

We're glad we don't work in the world of high finance.